An Obama Victory Party With Dungen

After finishing a performance of Festival, Gustav Ejstes, the creative mastermind behind Dungen, felt inclined to share his feelings about the election. "I have something to say about Barack Obama becoming president," he told the crowd in between the claps, whistles, and shouts, hesitant to speak over the enthusiasm. "I am happy."

I couldn't give an exact set list, but I'm pretty sure the band at least played "Satt Att Se", "Det Tar Tid", "Fredag", "Mina Damer Och Fasaner", "Mon Amour", "Du Ska Inte Tro Att Det Ordnar Sig", "Festival", "Panda", and "E For Fin For Mig".

I probably missed some songs in the beginning while I was driving my poor sick friend Ellen home. Ellen had a Spanish test the next morning at 8 am along with a sinus infection which seemed to be working its way down to her chest resulting in a great deal of uncomfortable coughing and general misery. At first, She made a brave attempt to attend the concert with me despite her misery. Things started off well for Ellen. She was clearly sick, but managing to have some fun while studying for Spanish at a table while the first band played through a number of feedback and reverb heavy tunes. In hindsight, maybe she wasn't well, but just delirious since she was doing homework at a rock concert. While doing homework, Ellen even missed out on some good antics from the band's front woman, who was fiercely committed to every one of her songs and playing a guitar nearly her size with skill and intensity. Still she didn't seem to be succumbing to her sickness. However, after enduring a number of Vampire Hands tunes that didn't agree with her illness and hearing the news that three more tunes would be played before Dungen took the stage, Ellen could no longer stay in a bar and listen to music which shook her body into further misery. As a guy who gets sick with sinus infections all the time, I empathized with Ellen, so I took her back to Manor with the plan to come back to the 400 bar in time to see Dungen's set. Happily I succeeded.

The playing was tight and professional but also playful and openly creative in spots. The band seems to leave room for improvisation. Panda in particular seemed to have some spots of material created on the spot, but maybe this is just because I'm so familiar with the album version of the tune. The instrumentals often seemed largely extemporaneous as well. This doesn't mean they were performed sloppily. Rather, the musicians played with freedom, and the music lived as an organism open to change, often adapting to the moment.

After it was all done, the bass player asked if any of the crowd had been present some years ago when Dungen had last played a concert in Minneapolis. Some of the crowd confirmed that they had. One gentleman lamented that he had been under 21 at the time of this last concert. The bass player had taken a picture at the last concert. He wanted a sort of 'before and after' photo this time around, so the remaining crowd squeezed tightly together. The band decided they belonged in the picture as well, so they came off the stage to join us. As I was trying to fit in as tightly as possible without sexually harassing anyone, Gustav Ejstes himself suddenly was right behind me. Don't take this the wrong way though, he was just a guy trying to fit into the frame of the picture.

Still, I'll always remember the time between November 4th 2008 and November 5th 2008 as the time Barack Obama became the president elect while I listened to Dungen perform "Panda" live.